Lumia 520 on AT&T Family Plan *WITHOUT* Data Plan

[SwimSwim]

Hey all. Well, my mom accidentally let her old messaging phone go through the wash (oops...), so now she's in need of a new phone. Problem is, in my searching, I can only seem to find flip phones (which my mom doesn't want) and then low end smartphones (I.E: Lumia 520). I don't know why, but the messaging category seems mostly dead. I'm going to keep looking, but in the meantime, my mom says the biggest reason she doesn't want a smartphone is because she doesn't want to have to buy a data plan.

So, I was curious: if we were to purchase a Lumia 520 on Amazon.com, get a proper Micro-SIM card enabled with my mom's phone number, plug it in and simply disable data usage in the settings, would that work? I think it will, but I just wanted to double check that:
- No data would be used over any mobile data connection, restricted to Wi-Fi only.
- Phone would still be able to make and receive phone calls and texts.
- AT&T wouldn't come chasing after us and forcing us to buy a data plan.

Thanks for all your help ahead of time!

 

[HeyCori]

As long as you have a smartphone of any kind then AT&T will charge you for data.

You could switch from a Family Plan to a Mobile Share plan and it would only costs $25 to add her phone since she's out of contract.

 

[darth_furious]

I did the exact same for my mom on family plan. I got a 820 on eBay and a microsim cutter. Cut her sim and disabled cellular data on setup
Sent from my RM-940_nam_att_200 using Board Express

 

[SwimSwim]

As long as you have a smartphone of any kind then AT&T will charge you for data.

You could switch from a Family Plan to a Mobile Share plan and it would only costs $25 to add her phone since she's out of contract.

Yeah, I was kinda hoping that, so long as AT&T doesn't know (I.E: the website still shows her old device), and we disabled data on it, AT&T would be none the wiser.

I did the exact same for my mom on family plan. I got a 820 on eBay and a microsim cutter. Cut her sim and disabled cellular data on setup
Sent from my RM-940_nam_att_200 using Board Express

So it does work then? Just so long as you stay on the down-low with AT&T?

 

[luxnws]

The cheapest GoPhone plan offers a limited $5/mo. data plan but you don't have to buy it. Just use your own wi-fi access like if you have Time Warner Cable then use TWC's hotspots instead of AT&T's hotspots.

If you are leery about AT&T, you can always get the 521 (T-Mobile). Even though the T-Mobile version usually sells for $10 more than the 520 on Amazon, it sells out and has been #1 in no-contract cell phones on Amazon. The 520 usually gets to #1 only when the 521 T-Mobile version is out of stock.

 

[SwimSwim]

The cheapest GoPhone plan offers a limited $5/mo. data plan but you don't have to buy it. Just use your own wi-fi access like if you have Time Warner Cable then use TWC's hotspots instead of AT&T's hotspots.

If you are leery about AT&T, you can always get the 521 (T-Mobile). Even though the T-Mobile version usually sells for $10 more than the 520 on Amazon, it sells out and has been #1 in no-contract cell phones on Amazon. The 520 usually gets to #1 only when the 521 T-Mobile version is out of stock.

Intriguing, would the 521 be unlocked? Our family plan is still on contract, so we're all bound to AT&T's servitude (unfortunately...) and absolutely must stick with AT&T on our current Family Plan.

 

[fdalbor]

While it is possible to get a unlocked 521 its going to cost twice as much as a locked phone. But a unlocked 521 would work just fine on a AT&T plan. The GoPhone that you can get from AT&T comes with a Gophone sim; but you don't have to use it. And even if you used it they would make you get a data plan. Its possible to cut the reg sim in the feature phone and use it in the smart phone. But I hear its a 50/50 thing. sometimes it works great, some time it does not work at all. You could give it a shot, and if it did not work get a sim from AT&T to put in the phone. Only then you would have to get a data plan.

 

[SwimSwim]

While it is possible to get a unlocked 521 its going to cost twice as much as a locked phone. But a unlocked 521 would work just fine on a AT&T plan. The GoPhone that you can get from AT&T comes with a Gophone sim; but you don't have to use it. And even if you used it they would make you get a data plan. Its possible to cut the reg sim in the feature phone and use it in the smart phone. But I hear its a 50/50 thing. sometimes it works great, some time it does not work at all. You could give it a shot, and if it did not work get a sim from AT&T to put in the phone. Only then you would have to get a data plan.

I'll give it a go. Besides, in my experience, AT&T is pretty wish-washy when it comes to activating SIM cards, making the matter as simple as grabbing one in store, calling some 800 number and have the card activated with-in a few minutes.

Thanks for all the info, so one last thing (and I'm pretty sure I know the answer already, but it's worth a shot): since my family is evidentially now going to be having three people using Windows Phone devices, rather than where it was previously only me, is there anyway possible to share app purchases without mingling personal data? I assume not, since Windows Phone is pretty much sign in once then everything is covered, but I know that on iOS you can sign in on one account for the App Store to share apps amongst family members, then keep everything else personal data wise separate.

Again, I assume this won't be possible, and that's fine, we'll dish out a few extra bucks so as to avoid all our data being shared, but still, if there's anyway of getting around this, it'd be excellent. Thanks.

 

[Shawn Magm]

There's a $25/mo GoPhone plan with talk & text, no data, that can be used with the L520.

 

[fdalbor]

Both me and my wife are signed in to my Microsoft account. When ever she gets something it is charged to my Microsoft account. Pretty much the same with my computers (also the same Microsoft account) Both our phones and both my Windows 8 computers are all signed up to the same account. Everything bought (even free stuff) all are charged to this same account. Its pretty much the same with our family plan account with AT&T. Both the phones and our Wifi hotspot are all assigned to one family account. Anything bought for any of the three all gets charged to the same account. Now that I think about its the same with our Amazon account for our two Kindle Fires. And all three accounts are assigned to the same credit card.